The Great Gatsby chapter 4 notes

GATSBY'S CRIMINALITY HINTS

prohibition- 1918-1933- illegal sale, consumption and purchase of alchohol (anti-saloon league)
"he's a bootlegger"- transports alchohol illegally- criminality, lower status?, easy/quick/dirty money, shady character
"one time he killed a man"- re-statement of fictions which compromise Gatsby
"nephew to Von Hindenburg and second cousin to the Devil- conceptual

GATSBY'S CAR

metonym- part of something/someone standing for whole
"rich cream colour"- pure with a hint of simister?, signifies richness/wealth, God-like imagery?
"green leather"- visual echo, speeding towards dream- green light association
"wind-shields that mirrored a doezn suns"- similie, understanding eyes/eyes full of dreams- brightness suggests divinity/God like position for Gatsby
repetition of "boxes"- concealment, hollowness- different sides of Gatsby
"monsterous length"- buried amongst brightness, sinister undertone
a "labyrinth"- confusing, maze-like place- still doesn't make sense to anyone/difficulty of understanding, navigating
"many layers of glass"- suggests contradictory sense of sight/seeing- partially see through- layers= obscuring
cars representative of Gatsby- metonymic relationship

PRESENTED IMAGE OF GATSBY

charming/charisma as in tension with seeming falsity
"skimming hastily through a dozen magazines"- fakeness/gossip- reinforce idea of gossip and rumour- sensational- image of celebrity?- advertisement
"I tried very hard to die"- a tragic figure?
less of a character than a fictional narrative- a fantasy- "lived like a young rajah..." + "collecting jewels"
"I turned towards...no longer here"- symbollically absent

WHAT RELATIONSHIP TO SOCIETY DOES HE WANT PEOPLE TO THINK HE HAS?

has experienced more than others- is higher class but more so, ineffably more than us- promoted to major- signifies wealth and status
"aware of bizzare accusations"
"an enchanted life"
"tradition"
"ancestors"

NEW YORK CONNOTATIONS

'city that never sleeps'
'the big apple'
fame/celebrity- iconic- 'concrete jungle'- bussiness/prosperity- brash/shows off- modernity C. early 20th- capitalist- 'fairytale of New York'
"even Gatsby could happen"- the 'event' of Gatsby- sensational- gorgeous?
"The city...first time"- feeling/metaphor- wonder- breath taking- overwhealming- magical- awe- exciting- exillerating- neauveau riche?
"first wild promise of the "mystery" and "beauty" in the world"- city regarding qualities the reader associates with Gatsby- abstract nouns
"white heaps and sugar lumps"- sweet/idealised
"sunlight" "flicker" "cars"- environment of New York is defined by the car- defines ideal notion of New York
"built with a wish"- new,fresh, innocent, clean, ideal, perfect?

MYER WOLFSHEIM

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